If you find that a hard inquiry was placed on your credit file and you have no knowledge of it, make sure to contact the lender that performed the inquiry to see what it was pertaining to. If it is not accurate or you still have no knowledge of the inquiry, you should expect fraud or identity theft and should promptly alert the credit bureaus of the alleged fraud so that it can be investigated. Doing so may also remove the hard inquiry from your credit report, although it may take some time.

Credit repair is critical to saving money on insurance, loans, and credit cards, but that's not the only reason to repair your credit. A better credit score opens up new employment opportunities, even promotions and raises with your current employer. If you dream of starting your own business or just want the security of knowing you can borrow money when you want to, you should repair your credit sooner rather than later.

In general, credit repair takes about three to six months to resolve all of the disputes that the average consumer needs to make. Of course, if you only have a few mistakes to correct or you repair your credit every year, it may not take as long; you might be done in just over one month. On the other hand, if you’ve never corrected your credit and have a large volume of things to dispute, it may take longer.
Delinquent payments, bad credit, and foreclosures usually mean high-interest rates and difficulty getting loans or mortgages. Lenders will consider you a high risk and will be hesitant to work with you. Changing your spending habits and cleaning up your credit report will help you get better loan rates and save you thousands of dollars in interest.

A financial institution such as a credit union, which typically issues credit builder loans, deposits a small amount of money into a secured savings account for the applicant. The borrower then pays the money back in small monthly installments — with interest — over a set period of time. At the end of the loan’s term, which typically ranges from six to 24 months, the borrower receives the total amount of the credit builder loan in a lump sum, plus any interest earned if the lender offers interest.

If you pay a charge-off in full, your credit report will be updated to show the account balance is $0 and the account is paid. The charge-off status will continue to be reported for seven years from the date of charge off. Another option is to settle charge-offs for less than the original balance if the creditor agrees to accept a settlement and cancel the rest of the debt.
When negative information in your report is accurate, only time can make it go away. A credit reporting company can report most accurate negative information for seven years and bankruptcy information for 10 years. Information about an unpaid judgment against you can be reported for seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out, whichever is longer. The seven-year reporting period starts from the date the event took place. There is no time limit on reporting information about criminal convictions; information reported in response to your application for a job that pays more than $75,000 a year; and information reported because you’ve applied for more than $150,000 worth of credit or life insurance.
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Just as one example, the average age of your credit accounts is a component of this category. Let's say that you have four credit cards -- one that's a year old, two that you opened three years ago, and one that you opened 10 years ago but don't use anymore. Currently, your average credit card account is 4.25 years old. If you decided to close your old and unused account, however, this average would drop to just 2.33 years and could hurt your FICO score.
The best part about Lexington Law is that it is an actual law firm that specializes in credit law, which means they know what they are doing when dealing with lenders. It also has an “A” rating from the BBB, and has been around longer than most other credit repair services. Lexington Law is on the cheaper end at $59.95 a month, with a $99.95 initial fee, which includes all of the bells and whistles that come along with their credit repair plan, including a guarantee.
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Top of the line software offers features like autofill templates. But the cost of this software is comparable to the cost of a credit repair service. This is why we recommend going straight for a service if you’re not confident about making disputes yourself. You can try the software, but you may still find yourself unsure about how to proceed. If you’re going to pay for credit repair, it’s best to get it right the first time!
Stop using credit cards. This is usually the most expensive of debt type, the easiest to use without thinking, and the source of aggressive collection efforts. Keeping zero or low balances on your credit cards will save money and increase your peace of mind. Use cash or your checking account debit card for irregular purchases, keeping your credit cards locked up securely at home.
First a few things on credit scores: They're important, and you should aim to have a good one, but you shouldn't obsess over the numbers. Fluctuations are normal, but keeping tabs on your score will help you make good financial decisions. Watching your score could even help you spot identity theft, because an unexpected score drop could indicate someone is misusing your information.

Use our sample letter for disputing errors with businesses (see below). Say that you’re disputing an item, and include the same information. Again, include copies (not originals) of documents that support your position. Many businesses specify an address for disputes. If the business reports the item to a credit bureau, it must include a notice of your dispute.

The Discover it® Student Cash Back is our top pick for a student card since it has a wide range of benefits. There is a cashback program where you can earn 5% cash back at different places each quarter like gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, Amazon.com or wholesale clubs up to the quarterly maximum each time you activate, plus 1% unlimited cash back automatically on all other purchases. Plus, new cardmembers can benefit from Discover automatically matching all the cash back you earn at the end of your first year. Another unique perk is the good Grades Reward: Receive a $20 statement credit each school year that your GPA is 3.0 or higher, for up to five consecutive years.
Credit and debt go hand in hand. If you’ve faced challenges with debt, then it’s probably affected your credit, too. In many cases, you need credit repair to correct mistakes and errors in your credit report that you may have picked up along the way while getting out of debt. Just by removing these errors, you can raise your credit score instantly with each successful dispute. There are a few ways to repair your credit and a few things you should know before you get started.
Stop using credit cards. This is usually the most expensive of debt type, the easiest to use without thinking, and the source of aggressive collection efforts. Keeping zero or low balances on your credit cards will save money and increase your peace of mind. Use cash or your checking account debit card for irregular purchases, keeping your credit cards locked up securely at home.
My wife and I recently decided we wanted to buy a home better suited to starting a family and sell our townhouse (which she owned when we met). I didn't have the best, let's say, track record with financials in my past and my credit was abysmal. I hit rock bottom 2.5 years ago when my car ( a beautiful fully loaded Jeep) was reposed on Xmas eve morning. Even then, although angry and ashamed, I didn't do much to help myself out. My 20's, which were years of partying, spending and generally speaking not caring had finally caught up. I was 29. So, we got to work with fixing things. Paying off creditors, paying down debts, making on time payments, etc. When we had my credit run about 6 weeks ago, it was 588. This was much higher than the 410 I had a couple years ago, but still a far cry from good. (Side note here, be mindful of using credit cards that track your fico score, or having a credit bureau account that gives you your score. There are around 30 different scores that are used, and different scores are used for different types of inquires (auto loan is different than mortgage)). So we got to work, paid off the last couple things and really started paying attention to what was happening. One thing I can't stress enough is every year, you're allowed to get 3 free credit reports, 1 from each bureau. You MUST do this each year. This is where I found my credit windfall. I was able to uncover the fact that a debt that had been paid of was still being reported as open and late. I also found a debt that wasn't mine! A big one. $1700 showing open and late for 2 years with a collector. I filled a report with the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) and they started an investigation. The company that had this debt wrote me a letter saying that even though I had no proof that the debt wasn't mine, they would absolve it and would contact the 3 credit bureaus to have the reporting removed and cleared. At this point, I called my broker and said it's time to run the simulator. They ran it, and then performed what is called a Rapid Rescore. Some brokers charge for this; good ones don't. Since they are trying to get your business they will do it for free. If it's at cost, it's roughly $10 per item per report. If you have a lot of issues it can add up. Anyhow, they did the rescore, did the simulator, ran a hard inquiry and BOOM, 657.
The trick here is that you need to batch all of these inquiries into a single two-week period in order to enjoy this benefit. There is a new scoring formula that expands this period to 45-days, but has not yet been adopted by all lenders and bureaus. For now, it’s best to shop around for the best interest rates within 14 business days to avoid an unnecessary decrease to your credit score.
The Discover it® Student Cash Back is our top pick for a student card since it has a wide range of benefits. There is a cashback program where you can earn 5% cash back at different places each quarter like gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, Amazon.com or wholesale clubs up to the quarterly maximum each time you activate, plus 1% unlimited cash back automatically on all other purchases. Plus, new cardmembers can benefit from Discover automatically matching all the cash back you earn at the end of your first year. Another unique perk is the good Grades Reward: Receive a $20 statement credit each school year that your GPA is 3.0 or higher, for up to five consecutive years.

As part of the Consumer Credit Protection Act, certain activities are prohibited under the Credit Repair Organizations Act. Specifically, credit repair companies cannot require payment in advance for credit repair services. The act further requires all contracts be in writing and that consumers have certain cancellation rights. Since this is federal law, consumers in every state are protected. If you have been told that you can't cancel a contract with a credit repair company, speak to an attorney in your area about your rights under the Credit Repair Organizations Act.

If you don’t address the exact cause of your bad credit, the damage is likely to worsen the longer it goes untreated. For example, if you’ve missed a few credit-card payments, repaying at least the minimum amount needed to change your account’s status from “delinquent” to “paid” on your credit reports will prevent your score from falling further. The same is true of collections accounts, tax liens and other derogatory marks — at least to a certain extent.

The first step is to get copies of your credit reports">get copies of your credit reports from Experian and each of the other national credit reporting companies. If you find anything to be inaccurate, follow their dispute instructions to have it corrected. You can also get your free credit report from Experian and dispute any inaccuracies at any time.

It’s been only a year since I opened my first card last September, and I already have a solid FICO score – 720, the last time I checked. That’s not a perfect score by any means, but it lands me safely in the “good” credit range, meaning I probably won’t have trouble getting approved for new credit in the future. I still have work to do if I want to get into the “very good” credit category, which starts at 740, according to MyFICO, but for a credit card newbie I’m not disappointed in my progress so far.

As you begin the process of improving your credit score, keep in mind that it’s a marathon and not a sprint, but improving your score is worth the effort. A poor credit score can potentially cost you tens of thousands of dollars over the course of a lifetime. It can also become a source of serious stress, making you feel like you just can’t leave the mistakes of the past behind and move on.